RELEASED:  Thursday, September 20, 2007

Nine To Join UW-Whitewater Athletic Hall of Fame

Whitewater, Wis.--The 2007 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Athletic Hall of Fame class, to be inducted Saturday, October 13, includes seven former student athletes, one coach, and a distinguished service recipient. 
 
The group includes former Warhawk athletes Allison (Dulla) Breidenbach, Pat Crowley, Diana (Wiegert) Janto, John Pecora, Joel Plewa, John Vodenlich and Cheryl Voight.  Jim Miller, former men's basketball and baseball coach, will also be inducted along with distinguished service honoree John "Pike" Teipner.
 
UW-Whitewater will host UW-Oshkosh in the annual Hall of Fame football game on October 13.  The kickoff will take place at 1:00 at Perkins Stadium, with the honorees feted during halftime activities.  There will be a reception and dinner, where the official induction ceremony takes place, in Williams Center on campus after the game.  For more information about the induction or tickets contact Joyce Follis, UW-Whitewater Athletic Hall of Fame treasurer, at 262-473-2360 or follisj@charter.net.
 
Allison (Dulla) Breidenbach
Allison Breidenbach, a graduate of Oak Park High School in River Forest, Illinois, was a member of the Warhawk softball team from 1987 to 1989.  As the Warhawks’ shortstop, she led UW-Whitewater to Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships in 1988 and 1989 and to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III Championship Tournament both years. The Warhawks finished second in Division III in1988.  The Warhawks went 28-11, 24-9, and 24-13 in her three seasons with the team.  Breidenbach led the team in runs scored in 1988 (25) and 1989 (30), and also led the squad in stolen bases with four in 1988 while batting .344 with ten runs batted in and two home runs.  She batted .310 with eight RBI’s in 1989.  She was a first team Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference all-conference pick in 1988 and a first team all-region pick in 1989. A 1989 graduate, Breidenbach teaches in Huntley, Illinois and lives in Fontana, Wisconsin.   
 
Pat Crowley
Pat Crowley, a graduate of Saint Mary Springs High School in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, was a member of the Warhawk football team from 1987 to 1990.  Crowley earned a starting position at defensive tackle midway through his freshman year (1987), helping the team earn the first of three Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships during his stay.  The team repeated league titles in 1988 and 1990, also earning National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III championship playoff berths both years.  The 1990 squad went undefeated in regular season play.  Crowley earned First Team All-Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honors in 1990, when he was also named First Team Division III All-American by the American Football Coaches Association and Second Team Division III All-American by the College Sports Information Directors of America.  He was named the 1990 team Most Valuable Player and a tri-captain.  He is still tenth in career quarterback sacks in the UW-Whitewater record book with fourteen. A 1992 UW-Whitewater graduate, he is an account representative with Clear Channel Broadcasting.  Crowley resides in Muskego, Wisconsin.
 
Diana (Wiegert) Janto
Diana Janto, a graduate of Wrightstown High School in Wrightstown, Wisconsin, was a member of the Warhawk cross country team from 1988 to 1991.  Janto was a member of a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III qualifying team in 1988, 1990, and 1991.  In 1991, Janto earned All-America honors by placing eleventh in the NCAA III meet, still the best finish ever by a Warhawk woman, with a time of 17:59.  That time is still the second fastest by a Warhawk woman on a 5,000 meter cross country course.  In 1991, she received the Marty van Steenderen Sportswoman of the Year in cross country.  In addition to cross country, Janto was a member of the Warhawk track team from 1989 to 1992.  She was named UW-W’s Most Valuable Performer for both the indoor and outdoor seasons in 1991 and 1992.  Janto was a member of the 1991 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion 4x800 meter relay team outdoors, and she was a member of the WIAC champion indoor distance medley relay in both 1991 and 1992.  She holds the UW-Whitewater record in the indoor 1000 meters with a time of 3:00.06, which she ran in 1991, and in the outdoor 3000 meters with a time of 10:06.01, which she ran in 1992.  Janto was the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion in the indoor 800 meters in 1982, when she also placed eighth outdoors in both the 1500 meters and 3000 meters in the National Athletic Association Division III championship, making her the first UW-Whitewater female athlete to earn All-American honors in two individual events in the same national meet.  Overall, Janto earned four WIAC titles while competing in track and field.  In 1992, she was the recipient of the Marty van Steenderen Sportswoman of the Year in Track and also that year received National Collegiate Athletic Association Woman of the Year honors.  A 1992 UW-Whitewater graduate, Janto is a special needs aide in the West Bend, Wisconsin school district. 
 
John Pecora
Pecora, a graduate from Greenfield High School in Greenfield, Wisconsin, was a member of the UW-Whitewater wrestling team from 1980 to 1985, redshirting in the 1983-84 school year.  A team captain for three years, he earned UW-W’s Most Improved Wrestler Award in 1983 and the Most Valuable Wrestler Award in ’85.  The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion in 1985, Pecora also earned All-America honors twice, finishing sixth at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III championship in 1983 and second in 1985.  He traveled with the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III all-star team to Japan and Korea in 1985.  Pecora is third in the UW-W record book with 40 wins during the 1984-85 season, the same year that ranks seventh in winning percentage, .930, and eighth for team points, 155.25.  Pecora’s ’84-85 season also ranks sixth for pins in a season with 19, is tied for ninth place with nineteen consecutive wins, and is third on the list with 141 takedowns.  He holds the fifteenth spot in the Warhawk record book in career wins with 93.  A 1988 graduate, he lives in Cordova, Tennessee and works as a regional director of distribution (Midwest) for Marriott Distribution Services.
 
Joel Plewa
Joel Plewa, a graduate of South Milwaukee High School, was a member of the Warhawk swim team from 1980 to 1984.  He was a two time Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion, 1980 and 1981, in the 100 meter backstroke.  Plewa was also a four-time WIAC runner-up, in the 200 meter backstroke in 1980 and 1981, and in the 200 meter individual medley in 1982 and 1984.  Plewa earned All-America honors twice, finishing eleventh with the 400 freestyle relay in the 1980 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics championship and ninth with that relay in the 1982 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III meet.  In the 1980 NAIA championship he placed also finished twenty-first in the 400 medley relay and sixteenth in the 200 backstroke.  In the1981 NCAA III championship he placed fourteenth in the 100 meter backstroke, setting the UW-Whitewater school record in the process.  In that same national championship he also swam the 200 meter backstroke finishing twenty-eighth, and he swam the 400 meter freestyle relay, placing twentieth. He was the Warhawk team captain for the 1982-83 and 1983-84 seasons.  A 1984 graduate, Plewa resides in South Milwaukee and is a middle school counselor in the Oak Creek-Franklin Joint School District.
 
John Vodenlich
John Vodenlich, a graduate of Racine (Wisconsin) Case High School,  was a member of the Warhawk baseball team from 1989 to 1992.  In 1990, Vodenlich earned Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Southern Division Honorable Mention honors, adding first team recognition as a catcher in 1991 and 1992.  He was a two time first team all-region selection, and received All-American second team honors in 1991 and third team honors in 1992.  He is second in the Warhawk record book with a season batting average of .456 in 1991, and is tied for tenth with 22 career home runs.    He helped his team reach National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament berths in 1989 where they tied for fifth, in1990, and in 1991 where he was named the all-midwest region tournament team.  Vodenlich has just completed his fourth season as the head baseball coach at UW-Whitewater.  He was named National Coach of the Year in 2005 when his team won the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III championship.  His teams have won the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference three times and has qualified for the national tournament twice.  He was named WIAC Baseball Coach of the Year in 2004 and has mentored five All-Americans in his four year stint as head coach.  His winning percentage is currently .750 with a win loss record of 139-46-1.  A 1992 graduate, Vodenlich lives in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
 
Cheryl Voight
Cheryl Voight, a graduate of Portage Turner High School in Portage, Wisconsin, was a member of the Warhawk volleyball team from 1977-1980.  She was named All-Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 1979 and helped lead the Warhawks to the1980 WIAC championship. That team advanced to the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women tournament, the first postseason berth in program history.  Voight was also a member of the Warhawk track team from 1978 to 1981.  She was the WIAC champion in the javelin throw in 1979 and 1980.  She holds the school record in javelin, 136-7 set in 1980.  (Note:  This record will not be broken because a rule changing the shape of the javelin, affecting its flight, required a new record category.)  A 1981 graduate, Voight resides in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is retired from the U.S. Navy.
 
Jim Miller
Jim Miller was the Warhawks’ head baseball coach from 1987 to 2003. He holds the record for victories for a UW-Whitewater baseball coach with a record of 416-226-4, a winning percentage of .648 and an average of 24 wins a year.  He was among the top thirty National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III active coaching leaders in both total wins and winning percentage at his retirement in 2003.  Miller was a three-time Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association College Coach of the Year, earning the honor in 1988, 1990, and 2000.  He was named the NCAA III Midwest Region Coach of the Year in 1989.  In 2000, 2001, and 2003 he directed UW-W to Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships, and Miller was named the conference baseball coach of the year each of those years.  He led the Warhawks to National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III tournament bids in 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 2000, 2001, and 2003, including a fifth place finish in 1989.  He mentored players to first team all-conference honors seventy-eight times, all-region honors fifty times and All-America recognition eleven times.  Eleven players coached by Miller signed professional contracts.  Miller is respected among his peers, serving on national team rating and All-America committees.  He is one of six college coaches in the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame.  Miller also was the Warhawks head basketball coach from 1975 to 1978.  A 1965 graduate of UW-Whitewater, Miller taught and coached thirty-four years for the Warhawks and still assists the department with special projects.  Miller is a Whitewater resident.
 
John "Pike" Teipner
John Teipner has been a booster club member for UW-W men’s basketball for twenty-six year, football for fifteen, baseball for ten, women’s basketball for three years and swimming for three years.  He is one of the originators of the annual football and basketball auction, a major fundraiser for both sports.  He has donated a car to an auction, funds and his time each year to various sports.   Teipner can be seen at numerous Warhawk athletics contests, home and away.  He also supports this University by employing UW-Whitewater students in his business. Teipner, now retired, is a resident of Fort Atkinson and is the former owner and president of Teipner Treatment Homes Incorporated.